Learning from Examples: Instructional Principles from the Worked Examples Research

TLDR

Worked examples are instructional devices that present expert solutions, and research on them—rooted in cognitive experiments—shows relevance to classroom instruction, early skill development, and constructivist teaching. The study proposes a framework to organize worked‑example research findings and derive instructional design principles. The authors develop a framework that categorizes research findings to inform effective instructional design. Key principles include using highly integrated, multimodal examples that emphasize conceptual structure, providing multiple examples per problem type with varied formats and surface cues, placing examples near practice problems, and encouraging self‑explanation.

Abstract

Worked examples are instructional devices that provide an expert's problem solution for a learner to study. Worked-examples research is a cognitive-experimental program that has relevance to classroom instruction and the broader educational research community. A frame- work for organizing the findings of this research is proposed, leading to instructional design principles. For instance, one instructional design principle suggests that effective examples have highly integrated components. They employ multiple modalities in presentation and emphasize conceptual structure by labeling or segmenting. At the lesson level, effective instruction employs multiple examples for each conceptual problem type, varies example formats within problem type, and employs surface features to signal deep structure. Also, examples should be presented in close proximity to matched practice problems. More- over, learners can be encouraged through direct training or by the structure of the worked example to actively self:explain examples. Worked examples are associated with early stages of skill development, but the design principles are relevant to constructivist research and teaching.